MyMemories Software Review and Giveaway

As all of you know, I love to sew. Sewing is what relaxes me, inspires me, and keeps me sane. I admire scrapbookers and the lovely way they preserve family memories, but I just can't get into it because I'd rather be sewing. About once or twice a year, however, I go to one of those online photo book sites and throw a bunch of pictures together in a book (I always have tons of pictures) so I can feel like I am preserving our family's memories too. This is technically called digital scrapbooking and there are just as many (if not more) digital papers, doo-dads, and sparkly things to make your pages special. But, sad to say, making beautiful pages is not a talent I have developed much because, well, I'd rather be sewing.

So I was a pretty surprised when Liz from MyMemories.com emailed me and asked if I wanted to test their digital scrapbooking software. I mean, of course I would love to (it's past time that I made another family picture book), but could I make anything cute enough? Would I really want to stop sewing to do it?

But I answered yes because she also offered a free software package for one of my readers too. Plus a coupon code for $10 off! I downloaded the software and then quickly added to my starter set of "scrapbooking stuff" a bunch of free downloads that they also offer.

After I got started, I was continually amazed at how easily I could put together cute pages. I guess I'm used to how s l o w the online photo book programs work, and having it installed on my computer made things so much easier.

Long story short, I haven't been able to sew for 2 days and nights now because I have been glued to the computer making digital scrapbook pages. And more. First I made a 45 page book. Then I saw that I could make it iPod (and iPhone) ready so I added music and exported it that way. Then I started making jpegs. I mean, really the possibilities are endless. You can even print the pages yourself.

Then I discovered that I could also open up the other digital papers and doo-dads that I already have and use them too.

So... for this to be a fair review of the software, here's my list of pro's and cons:

Pros:
It is easy to use and very intuitive - like it knows what you want before you do.
It's specialized just for scrapbooking - LOTS of options for making unique pages.
It organizes all of the doo-dads and sparkly things (as well as word art) so you can pile them on almost effortlessly.
You can export right to their site to order books and calendars, or export in other formats (.jpg, .mov, etc.)
When you download extras from MyMemories.com, it installs them automatically into the program.

Cons:
It is way faster than online digital scrapbooking, but I would still love it to be faster.
I did have it crash once, but to be fair, I was trying to do about 5 things at once (and it had backed up my album so I didn't lose anything when I restarted - very nice)
You can edit pictures some, but not in great detail like Photoshop (but my photos were already edited so this didn't bother me).

Here are some of my pages (don't be too critical, remember, I'm a sewer not a scrapbooker!):

Now I can't wait to give a copy of this software away to one of you! Here are all the ways you can enter:

First entry: visit www.MyMemories.com and choose a favorite scrapbooking kit. Tell me what it is in the comments. (Mine is A to Zoo, I'm gonna have to get it!)

Bonus entries {for each one, make a new comment telling me what you did}:

Like MyMemories.com on Facebook- http://www.facebook.com/mymemoriessuite

Follow the MyMemories blog- http://blog.mymemories.com/

Like carolinafair on Facebook.

Follow this blog.

This giveaway will run until next Saturday September 17th. Around 10:00 pm I'll use a random number generator to pick the winner from all the comments (only one entry per comment, so make multiple comments for your bonus entries!). If I don't already have your email address, please leave it.

Hope you win! But if you don't, use coupon code STMMMS67750 to get $10 off the MyMemories Software Suite. That's over 25% off. Good luck!

Comments are closed on this giveaway, but the coupon code is still valid.